Research outline

Airway remodeling in a sheep model for chronic allergic asthma

Remodeling of structural and functional tissues in the lungs is a significant morbidity factor for chronic asthmatics. Sheep are well suited for studying the mechanisms that underlie airway remodeling as their lungs have similar morphological and physiological characteristics to human lungs. We have developed a chronic asthma model using sheep to examine remodeling of lung tissues during persistent allergic inflammation. Repeated challenges with house dust mite to sheep lungs induces many of the distinguishing features of remodeling in asthmatics. These include increased collagen deposition and airway smooth muscle bulk, mast cell and goblet cell hyperplasia and epithelial cell hypertrophy.

The sheep model we have developed for the study of airway remodeling is well placed to measure and correlate the physiological changes associated with the long-term decline in lung function in chronic asthmatics with the structural changes observed in the remodeling of lung tissues.